if the New Testament was written by eyewitnesses and is not a fabrication from later Impostors then they should be able to get most of their facts right about that time period in other words in telling of the history and ministry of Jesus and the Apostles the author should be able to paint Jesus in the correct culture region and with other historical figures so they should get the names of towns rulers cultural aspects geography and customs correct like for example if someone from the year 3000 discovered a book about the history of our time to know
whether it was written by an authentic eyewitness of this culture and not an imposter from a few centuries later the author should be able to get several facts right like they should not mix up the order of presidents place cities in the wrong state or ascribe customs from the 1800's to the 21st century in the same way if the New Testament was written by eyewitnesses of the Ministry of Jesus from first century Judea they should get their facts correct about the region and culture likewise the broad historical facts on the Gospels should be confirmed by
other historical sources when we look at the evidence this is exactly what we see we find multiple secular sources attesting to the life and Ministry of Jesus confirmation and archaeological finds and how the New Testament perfectly coheres with ancient history starting with the first one we actually have seven sources outside of the New Testament which mentioned the existence of Jesus three major ones go even further Tacitus writing around 100 AD says that rome suffered a great fire in 64 AD and many blame the Emperor Nero to get rid of the rumors Tacitus says hence to
suppress the rumors he falsely charged with the guild and punished with the most exquisite tortures the persons commonly called Christians who were hated for their enormities Christus the founder of the name was put to death by Pontius Pilate procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius as you can see Tacitus is a hostile witness which means his testimony meets the criteria of embarrassment and he confirms what the New Testament says that Jesus existed that he was put to death and by Pontius Pilate ruling in Judea under emperor Tiberius so Tacitus a test of five facts
that align with the accounts in the New Testament another historian by the name of Josephus says of Christ now there was about this time Jesus a wise man if it be lawful to call him a man where he was a doer of wonderful works a teacher of such men as received the truth was pleasure he drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles he was the Christ and when Pilate at the suggestion of the principal men among us had condemned him to the cross those that loved him at the
first did not forsake him for he appeared to them alive again the third day as the divine prophets had foretold these in 10,000 other wonderful things concerning him and the tribe of Christians so named for him are not extincted this day now the odd thing about this passage is Josephus was a Jew not a Christian yet he says Jesus was the Christ and confirms the resurrection because of this scholars agree this passage has been interpolated which means a later Christian scribe doctored it however that doesn't mean the entire passages of fraud and in fact most
scholars think it is original and just slightly doctored and fortunately we have textual evidence to confirm this in 1971 an Arabic version of this passage from Josephus was found and it reads like this at this time there was a wise man who is called Jesus and his conduct was good and he was known to be virtuous and many people from among the Jews and the other nations became as disciples Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die and those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship they reported that he had appeared
to them after his crucifixion and that he was alive accordingly he was perhaps the Messiah concerning whom the prophets had were counted wonders so as I said most scholars accept this passage was interpolated and was originally more like what is found in the Arabic manuscript Josephus also confirms in other sections that the brother of Jesus was James and that John the Baptist was beheaded by Herod Antipas therefore Josephus confirms New Testament facts that Jesus existed he was a good and moral teacher that many people followed him he was put to death by Pilate by crucifixion
after his death his disciples believed he appeared to them they continued to preach his message James was his brother John the Baptist existed and was put to death by Herod Antipas the Babylonian Talmud says on the eve of Passover they hang you schewe and then announce or went out in front of him for forty days saying he is going to be stoned because he practiced sorcery and enticed and led israel astray anyone who knows anything in his favor let him come and plead in his behalf but not having found anything in his favor they hanged
him on the eve of Passover the Talmud confirms two Jews wanted the stone Jesus that he was crucified around Passover and that he led many Jews away from the religious authorities there is also an implication a trial happen and the Talmud confirms Jesus was believed to be a miracle worker by accusing him of sorcery this meets the criteria of embarassment says they have to admit it was believed Jesus had some supernatural power but accuse it of coming from an evil source this is why most historians accept Jesus was believed to be a miracle worker as
grand 12th tree says there is now almost unanimous agreement among Jesus Questers that the historical Jesus performed mighty works even the Jesus Seminar lists among their basic facts about Jesus that he was a charismatic healer and Exorcist thus we have several facts from these three sources which confirm the broad historical facts of the New Testament finally there was evidence in a citation from Africanness that the historians filler' Guillen and thallus mentioned the period of darkness that happened around the time of Christ's death he says thalles in the third book of his histories explains away the
darkness as an eclipse of the Sun unreasonably fellahin appears to have said during the time of Tiberius Caesar an eclipse of the Sun occurred during the full moon therefore we have extra biblical sources for the period of darkness in the New Testament and also we have a large amount of facts in the New Testament confirmed by other sources the second section of external evidence comes from archaeological finds the majority of what we find in archaeology confirms the biblical account backing up the claim the New Testament is reliable but by and large 85 to 90% of
the discoveries being made in any land of the biblical world today almost immediately agrees with the biblical record you can quarrel over the 10 or 15 cent 15% if you want but most of the archaeological discoveries affirm the biblical record there's so much data it would be impossible to go over at all however there are important finds we should mention in the 1800s several skeptics doubted the existence of Pilate but in 1961 an inscription was found in Caesarea which reads to Tiberius Pontius Pilate prefect of Judea confirming the historical existence of Pilate and he was
ruling in Judea under Tiberius as Luke records skeptics also used to say Luke hadn't a clue what he was talking about because he records Lyceus was the tetrarch of abilene under Tiberius but we know from history Lyceus lived earlier than that as Tetrarch of classes however an inscription discovered at Albia dating to the time of Tiberius names licinia says Tetrarch just as Luke had written there were in fact two government officials nameless Aeneas and Luke was correct all along in fact we discovered archaeological evidence for many of the rulers Luke mentions like Herod the Great
Herod Antipas galley of the proconsul of Archaea from acts 18 many figures mentioned in the New Testament have been discovered in archaeology such as Erastus the treasure at Corinth mentioned in Paul's letter to the Romans in 1941 more Asturias were discovered one bearing the name Alexander o son of Simon and the author Ares may contain a misspelling of Sri nian if so this would be another historical figure mentioned in the New Testament even closer to Jesus in her obelisk archeologists believe they have found the lost tomb of Philip the Apostle however a major discovery came
recently when the family tomb of Caiaphas was discovered confirming his existence as well we also discovered archaeological evidence of Bethlehem and Nazareth despite them being small towns as well as Capernaum also Capernaum we found evidence of a magnificent synagogue and a Roman presence just as the New Testament testifies and Jerusalem we have found archaeological evidence for the remains of a Pool of Bethesda in a pool of Salone we've also found a galilean fishing boat which perfectly fits the description in the New Testament again there's so much to go over it would be impossible to mention
it all here but I want to mention three more important discoveries recently it was reported that we found a likely place of Jesus's trial in Jerusalem's Old City Shimon Gibson says there is of course no inscription stating it happened here but everything archaeological historical and gospel accounts all fall into place and it makes sense even more important excavations in Judea revealed that an earthquake happened around the time of Jesus's crucifixion it was reported researching the deeper layers of the soil - earthquakes were detected by looking at the layers of build up sediment called varves which
build up each year a widespread earthquake is known to have happened in 31 BC and another one was detected which must have occurred between 26 and 36 AD they registered at a 6.3 magnitude and that would have been capable of causing the structural damage two tombs rocks in the temple as recorded in the Gospels this coheres with the biblical account that an earthquake happened at this time the final piece of evidence may be our first archaeological discovery which mentions the existence of Jesus in 2002 an ossuary was discovered with the inscription James son of Joseph
brother of Jesus dr. Andre Lumiere evaluated the ossuary and stated the curse of Aramaic script is consistent with first century lettering and it was not made with modern tools the odds of an ossuary mentioning a brother is very unlikely unless that brother was a famous person and the Biblical Archaeology review also looked at the plausibility and said from this time period there would be 1.71 people named James with a brother named Jesus and a father named Joseph making it extremely likely that if it is authentic it would belong to Saint James of Jerusalem however in
2003 Israeli Antiquities Authority published its report that the ossuary was authentic but the inscription was a modern forgery but the problem is they report left many holes professor Wolfgang krumbine analyzed the ossuary and concluded their paper originates from a series of errors bias mistaken premises use of inappropriate methodology mistake in geochemistry defect error control reliance on unconfirmed data in a disregard of information in other later studies concluded the inscription was authentic including a 2014 study which found the microfossils in the inscription were naturally deposited New Testament scholar Ben Witherington remarked as seems probable the ossuary
found in the vicinity of Jerusalem and dated to about eighty sixty-three is indeed the burial box of James the brother of Jesus the inscription is the most important extra biblical evidence of its kind thus as the evidence indicates we have the authentic ossuary of James the brother of Jesus and this means we have an archaeological inscription which bears the name of Jesus from the first century thus the external evidence in archaeology strongly supports the biblical account and its reliability the final section of external evidence is to look at how well the New Testament coheres and
fits with the rest of ancient history when this evidence piles up it easily refused to claim the New Testament was written by later forgers and demonstrates the Gospel writers were intimately familiar with the culture they were writing about for example in Matthew 17 Jesus is approached by Peter to pay a temple tax of two drachma Jesus teaches him a lesson and tells him where he can find the amount for himself and Jesus to pay the tax Peter goes to the sea and finds a shekel which in ancient Rome was equal to four drachma thus Matthew
records the appropriate currency exchange that one shekel is equal to four drachma now why is this important because it's an example they knew what they were talking about if I told you to tell me the proper currency exchange in Mexico eighty years ago could you do it and remember you must do it without modern technology like the internet or extensive libraries the odds are very slim in the same way when the Gospel writers get details like this it matters because if they were written by later forgers after the destruction of the temple in 70 AD
which dramatically changed the culture they would make numerous errors and demonstrate they were not part of that culture but later frauds a good example is Phil Estrada's his life of Apollonius Phil Estrada is writing around 200 AD attempts to make up the life of a sage from the first century and utterly fails scholars recognize dozens of errors which show the mark of a later forger such as having a Polonius talk with kings and Babel yet in the first century Babylon was still in ruins his trip to India is completely incompatible with known facts most scholars
recognize that Apollonius is a made-up pagan sage based on Jesus and is meant to give the pagans their own miracle worker so if the Gospels were written by later forgers it would be easy for them to mix up facts and show they were not organically part of first century Palestine in Greece like how Phil Estrada's wasn't however we find over and over again that the New Testament writers get facts correct constantly demonstrating they were intimately familiar with the culture of that time to show how much they got right Nathanael Lardner wrote credibility of the gospel
history which documents detail after detail of what the New Testament authors got right however it's 17 volumes long so the amount of details they got right is unprecedented that doesn't happen if you're a later forger like the tail of a Polonius demonstrates and writing about first century Judea is no cakewalk just look at how the governance changed first Herod the Great ruled a United Kingdom but then his kingdom is divided between three sons are coleus is never certified as king but is allowed to reign that are coleus is removed in Judea is reduced to a
Roman province run by prefix but the religious leaders are still allowed some role in military power however in 36 ad Pilate is removed and replaced with others which lasts until Herod Agrippa has given kingship of the region he lasts a few years and then dies and is replaced by a system of procurator's however Herod Agrippa the second later is given some power in Judea but it is limited the whole issue is very confusing and is befuddled even some Roman historians however the Gospel writers tiptoe easily through this political mess where it is easy to make
a mistake and show you have no clue what you're talking about if they constantly get the changes in government correct even up to the point of saying arc Elias was not a king but only reigning is one a later forger would have likely messed this up another good point is the issue of crucifixion and burial the depiction of Jesus's crucifixion correlates to known facts about it such as carrying one's cross and being nailed to it many skeptics used to think the Gospels were and their depiction of someone being nailed to a cross however in 1968
an ossuary was found containing the burial remains of a jewish man named johanna containing a seven inch nail driven through both his feet his legs were also crushed confirming the practice of breaking the victims legs skeptics like Dale Martin have tried to argue Jesus wouldn't have been allowed to be given a proper burial however the fact that Johan was given one challenges his claim Josephus also tells us that prior to 70 AD crucified victims were allowed to be given a proper burial that's the biblical description of crucifixion and burial fits well with what the historical
record tells us in the book Jesus and the eyewitnesses Richard baulkham compares the amount of names used in the Gospels with that of what we found on ancient Palestinian gravestones ancient records and on also Aires he finds the ratio of names in the Gospels correlates almost perfectly to the ratio of names the rest of the historical record reveals in both cases Simon and Joseph are the most popular male names the other nine most popular male names correlate as well the two most popular female names Mary and Salome and the other nine most popular female names
correlate almost as close as well thus it seems remarkable the Gospels were written by a later forgers they coincidentally got the use of name percentages right as well it fits far better with the fact that they were actually writing about events in a culture they were eyewitnesses to otherwise these facts would not be piling up one after another this can be seen what Colin haymer does he lists 84 facts the book of Acts gets right in its final 16 chapters and when you look at the facts it gets right it shows Luke was very familiar
with the culture and knows what he was talking about Luke gets the proper names of ports local industries of certain regions the proper lines of boundaries slang terminology specific landmarks local variations and languages and the proper titles for regional and local officials for example he knows the governor of Cyprus is called a proconsul while in Philippi they are referred to as governors meanwhile assess elliniko they are referred to as poly Turks for rulers in Ephesus the chief magistrate is called the town clerk the ruler in Malta is called the chief man in Athens aro peccatis
is a title for a member of their Court and so on and so on you do not get this kind of accuracy unless you are very familiar with what actually took place and you do not get that unless you are or work directly for the eyewitnesses of the events Kraig Bloomberg does the same with the book of John unless 59 facts John gets right about ancient Judea and there are still larger 17 volume work waiting for you if you want to see the overwhelming amount of facts they get right which is way too much to
list here however my research partner was nice enough to pull the 41 facts William Paley listen his book which is the cliff notes on lardner's work and we place them in a blog post below so you can go through them and see the overwhelming amount of facts they get right all of this just piles up to show the New Testament writers knew what they were talking about and over and over again they got their facts right affirming the reliability of the New Testament the external facts and archaeological discoveries constantly confirm the biblical account in almost
every way the evidence once again affirms the New Testament is a reliable document
